


For Want of a Fourth Year

by RelenaDuo



Series: Yo dawg [4]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Attempt at Humor, Blood and Injury, Book 4: Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Custody Battle, Gay Panic, Gen, Harry Potter Has a Twin, Harry Potter is a Horcrux, Humor, I'm just playing around with tropes, Obscurial Harry Potter, Obscurus (Harry Potter), Pining, Pining Harry Potter, Sexuality Crisis, Slytherin Harry Potter, The Potters Live, Triwizard Tournament, Trope Subversion/Inversion, Tropes, Wrong Boy-Who-Lived (Harry Potter), no beta we die lie mne
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-06
Updated: 2020-12-27
Packaged: 2021-03-09 22:48:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 12,236
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27924055
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RelenaDuo/pseuds/RelenaDuo
Summary: Harry's fourth year at Hogwarts promises to be full of excitement and adventure with the Triwizard Tournament. Except ain't nobody got time for dat, especially Harry. Cause who else is going to care about all these poor dangerous creatures being clearly held against their will for the frivolous entertainment of wizardkind if not him?
Relationships: have a guess - Relationship
Series: Yo dawg [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2020582
Comments: 40
Kudos: 293





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> YES! FOURTH YEAR, HERE WE GO!  
> I've finished writing this year and there is very little left over before this story is over, but I'm currently being drowned in uni works and the 17th I'm going in for surgery and will be staying in the countryside while I heal so I'll have limited access to internet. I'll try to post every Sunday from now on and if I don't feel free to bug me till I do, don't be shy.
> 
> Anyways, I love all of your comments, they give me life :D  
> Hope you enjoy!  
> Also! We finally have a pairing! Even if you don't ship these two don't worry too much since in this story they won't really become anything central to the story. Maybe sometime in the future, but that's not what this story is about.

Harry and Jimmy had been at the Weasleys for a whole day when Sirius Black came to visit them.

“I know you guys barely know me, but I was made your godfather when you were born and-and I want you to know that I don’t blame or recent you at all for what Lily did”, said told them as they were sipping tea under Mrs. Weasley’s watchful eye.

Harry blinked at Black, “You are? I thought Remus was our godfather.”

“Well, as far as he can tell me he filled in that role when everybody thought I’d betrayed them”, said Black with a wince, “But I never stopped being your godfather, even after all the years in Azkaban. And now I’ve been a free man for the last few months I’d like to get to know you better. To be honest I was going to go to Augusta’s house yesterday to have this talk, but then you disappeared, so-“, Black held his arm open awkwardly, “Here you got me.”

Harry nodded. Jimmy was doing an excellent impression of being part of the couch.

Black cleared his throat, “I’d-I’d like to start by offering you both a permanent place to live.”

Harry’s eyes widened, but before he could say anything Mrs. Weasley scoffed, “And how do you suppose to do that? Do you even have a house? Do you know anything about caring for children? Teenagers? This is a critical period in their lives!”

‘It is?’, Voldemort sounded intrigued.

“First of all let my clarify that I am by no means saying that your house isn’t enough, but you have to realize that you can’t keep them forever-“

“And why not? Who says I can’t?”, countered Mrs. Weasley harshly.

“They are my family! You can’t keep me away from them”, said Black heatedly, “I’m all they have left at this time and I’ll be damned if I let them down!”

‘I feel like I’m back in the telenovela. Is the Weasley woman going to reveal herself as your true mother now?’

‘She better fucking not! Vol! With how many woman did you sleep?!’

‘Oh, right, I’m your father. Forgot there for a second. I’m sorry, the drama distracted me.’

Mrs. Weasley was sniffing now, “You can’t just say things like that if you don’t mean them! You need to swear to these children that you do if you’re going to be serious about this!”

“Please don’t”, said Harry, but Black was already taking his and Jimmy’s hands into his.

“I swear to you both that I’ll do my best to be there for you.”

“Fine! Fine! We believe you!”, said Harry quickly, feeling deeply uncomfortable.

Black grinned at them and Mrs. Weasley sniffed louder.

“That was very sweet Sirius, but do you have a house for them?”

Black winced, “I have my old family house. It’s not such a nice place, but it’s better than nothing. It just needs cleaning and to get rid of all the dark stuff that my family left behind.”

Mrs. Weasley nodded and a determined air surrounded her, “Let me help. These children have suffered enough, they need to have a stable household.”

“Er”, Black looked like he wanted to refuse, but then thought better of it, “Sure, thanks Mrs. Weasley.”

Mrs. Weasley waved him off, “You can call me Molly, now, let us go see how that house looks like.”

The house ended up looking like shit.

“You can’t bring the children here Sirius”, chastised Mrs. Weasley.

Harry had to agree. They’d arrived five minutes ago and he’d already lost sight of Jimmy.

“Obviously not right now, but if we fix it there will be more than enough spare space for them”, said Sirius and then looked around him, “Hey, where’s Jimmy?”

Two hours later they found him in the same room where they’d first realized he was lost.

* * *

“Here, you’ll need this too”, said Mrs. Weasley as she loaded yet another cleaning solution in one of her son’s arm. Harry’s was already full, so she fortunately had turned to treating her own children as packing mules.

‘This is degrading. They didn’t even make us clean at the orphanage, but now they do?’

“Molly is this really necessary?”, asked Sirius. It was the ninth time he asked this since they’d left Grimmauld Place. Harry had counted.

“Sirius grab that anti-Doxy spray up on that shelf, you’re tallest here”, said Mrs. Weasley, completely ignoring Sirius.

“Yes ma’am”, sighed Sirius and stretched to grab it.

After fifteen more minutes of shopping nobody had any arm space left for her to use, so they finally started to leave.

Unfortunately as soon as they were back in the open streets the press was once again there to swarm them with questions.

“Stay together! Just look forward and force your way through!”, shouted Mrs. Weasley over the din.

Harry was getting tired of being followed no matter where he went. Besides, the whole situation was just so stupid.

Another camara flash blinded Harry for a few seconds and took away the last self restraint he had left.

‘Harry, no!’

“I’LL SHOW UP AT YOUR PARTY TO SPOOK SMALL CHILDREN FOR 5 GALLEONS AN HOUR!”, Harry shouted and then laughed at his own joke.

“ _Harry_!”, hissed Sirius and grabbed him by the arm to drag him away from the Alley quicker.

As soon as they arrived back at Grimmauld Place Harry expected to be given a lecture, but instead Mrs. Weasley hugged him tightly.

“Poor child, I can’t even imagine what you must be going through! This absolutely can’t continue like this!”, she said and then marched away, a woman on a mission.

“Dude, what are you gonna do if somebody takes you up for your offer?”, asked Ron.

Harry shrugged, “Easiest Galleons I’ll ever make in my life.”

Surprisingly, Harry never got an offer to show up some party and even more surprisingly he press started to publish less and less stories about him and Jimmy.

‘Pity. I was starting to get taken with your media given name – The-Bonkers-Teen-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named.’

‘It was a terrible name’, thought Harry as he looked through that day’s Daily Prophet and found no new article on him or Jimmy.

‘This is a first’, he thought.

“Please tell me there no new article of you or Jimmy”, pleaded Ron when he came to sit at Harry’s side at the breakfast table, “Mum has been writing half the world about what damage the press is doing to you and Jimmy. She even wrote the _Malfoys_. I’m kinda feeling like she loves you more than us”, Ron laughed.

Harry blinked owlishly, “She wrote Draco?”

“Duh, how else would the Daily Prophet shut up”, said Ron with an eye roll.

This apparently impressed Mrs. Weasley enough that she allowed Draco to come visit Harry whenever he wanted.

Unfortunately he chose a day in which they all had to go help Sirius with cleaning his house, so he got dragged along with everybody.

“This place looks terrible”, said Draco as soon as he stepped into the house, “The troll leg is a nice touch though.”

“Just be thankful she’s not drafting you into cleaning as well”, said Harry as he started to grab a bucket full of cleaning supplies to haul up the stairs.

Draco made a face and clutched his Firebolt closer to himself.

Draco mostly ended up following Harry around the house as he slaved through the arduous cleaning process and kept him company with an on-going commentary on the terrible state of the place and how the house elf deserved to be given clothes for his incompetence.

“I tried to offer him clothes, but then he started to wail when I implied I’d have Sirius pay him. Sirius hates him though, but I’ve expressively forbidden him from touching a hair on Kreacher’s head. He really just needs some love and he’ll come around.”

“Harry, he called you a filthy bastard, son of a whore. What would he need to do to make you actually hate him? Spit in your tea? I bet you he’s already done it.”

“Nah, he doesn’t make any of us tea”, explained Harry.

“Merlin, what a disgrace”, said Draco, making a face of deep disgust.

“He was all alone here for year Draco, you’d be the same if it happened to you.”

Draco looked appalled at the mere thought.

Finally, Harry was given a break when lunch was served.

“Sirius, this is Draco”, Harry introduced his best friend when they went to sit at the kitchen table.

“You’re Narcissa’s boy, aren’t you?”, said Sirius as he looked at Draco with narrowed eyes.

“Um, yes. She sends her regards”, Draco gave him an uncomfortable smile.

Sirius made a face, “Oh, goody.”

“Sirius!”, chastised Mrs. Weasley and turned to Draco, “Don’t mind him dear, he’s just a grumpy old man.”

“Um”, said Draco, looking unsure of what to say to that.

They ate mostly in silence, only the twins making conversation every now and then. Sirius kept looking at Draco with narrowed eyes and Draco kept looking straight at his plate.

When they were finally finished as everybody began excusing themselves Harry breathed a sigh of relief.

“Come Draco, let me show you the backyard”, said Harry, hurrying Draco to get away from the tense atmosphere.

“Great”, said Draco, also breathing a sigh of relief and quickly grabbed his Firebolt that he had left resting by the door.

“Hey, isn’t that the broom I gave you, Harry?”, asked Sirius.

Harry froze in his steps.

“Uh, no, this was given to me by a secret admirer”, said Draco, “I found it lying on my bed after I got back from the Christmas holidays.”

Sirius shook his head, “I don’t think so, I left that broom on Harry’s bed for him to find after he got back from the holidays. Your bed is the last one in the room, right Harry? I left it right there!”

Draco was shaking his head, “That’s impossible! When I got to the dorms it was on my bed! Everybody saw it, even Harry who had-“, Draco stopped suddenly and at looked straight at Harry, “-arrived first – YOU SON OF A MANTICORE! You put the broom on my bed so you could continue with your piss poor excuse to refuse going to Quidditch practices!”

“It was taking up all my time to go try talk with the Dementors!”, Harry caved, “How am I ever supposed to breach the distance between our worlds if I’m playing bloody Quidditch all the Merlin damned time?!”

By now several of the Weasley children were snickering.

“Hey!”, began Ron between sniggers, “Didn’t Draco get this note with a bunch of hearts on it with the Firebolt?”

“I most certainly didn’t leave any note, much less one full of hearts!”, huffed Sirius, crossing his arms.

Harry could feel himself blushing from the roots of his hair to the rest of his body. From the corner of his eye he could see Draco was blushing a faint pink as well.

“Just wanted to get rid of it”, mumbled Harry and the Weasley children exploded into laughter.

“Well that’s enough!”, said Mrs. Weasley, “Enough! Everybody go back to your jobs! Come along!”

Harry could kiss her for chasing out her children, but when he saw the weird look he was getting from Sirius he grabbed Draco and bolted with him, “The backyard is over here!”, he heard himself say over the roaring of mortification he felt on the inside. He could feel Voldemort’s amusement and heard Spot gave a few huffs of laughter.

Once they were at the backyard Harry collapsed at the steps and held his head in his arms, “Nothing happened here”, he told Draco.

Draco cleared his throat, “Uh, absolutely. About the broom though-“

“I don’t want it”, Harry waved him off as he uncurled from himself and was happy to see that Draco was no longer blushing, “Do with it whatever. I don’t care.”

Draco gave a stiff nod, “Sure, but let me give you my old Nimbus 2001. At least for the Quidditch games.”

Harry sighed, “Fine”, and got up from the steps.

“Let me give you a tour of all the dark plants that Mrs. Black was planting”, Harry offered and tried not to think about what had happened again.

Fortunately the broom, or the thrice damned note, didn’t come up in the conversation again and Harry was able to see Draco off without any inconvenience. Until he got back to the Burrow where the twins immediately began singing to him.

“Harry and Draco sitting under a tree, K-I-S-S-I-“

“LALALALALALA”, Harry began chanting and ran away from them and almost ended up running Ginny over.

“BOYS!”, shouted Mrs. Weasley from somewhere in the house. The twins stopped, but kept snickering.

Harry felt himself blush all over and ran to hide in Ron’s room while the boy was still out.

‘Well, this has certainly been an entertaining day’, mused Voldemort.

Harry just buried his head in his knees as he sat on the floor and thought about how nice Draco’s cheeks had looked as he blushed. It made a nice contrast with his platinum blond hair. And stunning grey eyes. And-

Harry groaned, “Is this how it feels to like somebody?”, he whispered.

‘Wait, no, I was joking! I didn’t sign myself up for this kind of teenage angst!’

‘But, isn’t it weird that I find Draco pretty?’, wondered Harry as he bit his lower lip, ‘I’ve never found a girl to be particularly pretty.’

‘Merlin, let me out! I’ve learned all my lessons! I swear I won’t be evil anymore!’

‘Don’t you think Draco’s pretty, Vol?’

Voldemort wailed, ‘Please let me out! I can’t deal with a crushing teenager! I’m a Dark Lord for Merlin’s sake!’

Harry thought again about how Draco looked when he blushed and found himself blushing again.

* * *

“Okay, now only your books are left over”, said Sirius as he looked at Harry and Jimmy’s Hogwarts lists.

“Remember we’ll also need that magical tent if you’re serious about attending the World Quidditch Cup”, reminded Harry.

“Of course, I’m always Sirius”, Sirius gave a bright grin as Harry groaned at his pun.

They quickly gathered all the books that they needed and then headed to a store specialized in camping for wizards.

“This one looks expensive, but fortunately the Ministry is still paying for all my stuff so I’ll take it”, Sirius smiled at the store owner who in turn beamed at him.

“You need to spend your money in wiser ways. Where will you be in twenty years from now? You need to consider your future”, Harry admonished.

“Harry, nobody is as conscious as you are about their finances. Don’t think I’ve not seen the banking statements that you get from Gringotts, I’m almost afraid to ask where you’re getting all your money from.”

“I invest. I have several investments going on and as soon as one gives out profits I invest that as well. The funds for my future regime have to come from somewhere you know.”

Sirius shook his head, “See, you go off about expenses, but then when you get a truly expensive gift, brought under the peril of death you give it away to”, he made a face of disgust, “Draco Malfoy.”

“I thought you were okay with me giving it away”, said Harry, feeling again a bit bad for what he’d done.

“Look, you can give whatever you like to whomever you like, but come one Harry”, here he made his face of disgust again, “ _Draco Malfoy_.”

Harry rolled his eyes, “Sirius.”

“You can do so much better than that”, said Sirius.

“ _Sirius_!”, hissed Harry as he felt himself blush.

Sirius shook his head, “All my hope now rests on Jimmy”, he lamented.

Harry huffed and left Sirius alone at the store to lament himself.

The following day they all left the Burrow to go to the World Cup. Sirius was inviting the Weasleys along as a form of thanking them for taking care of Harry and Jimmy while he was still setting his house in order. At the rate he was going though, Harry and Jimmy would be lucky to finally move in there at the summer after their fourth year.

At the game he meets Draco and he can only thank Merlin that nobody breaks into song or that neither he nor Draco started to blush the second they met. Though he did note that Draco wasn’t carrying the Firebolt along with him like he usually did.

‘I’m not blushing, am I?’, asked Harry nervously.

‘For Merlin’s sake, no! I can’t wait for the day I’m free from this torture!’

Harry ignored him and went to join Draco with his family. Harry finally met Lucius Malfoy, the man Draco so famously wanted to write to almost daily when they were in first year.

“Guess what”, said Draco after a while, “I know of something that’ll happen at Hogwarts this year that you don’t know about.”

Harry glanced at Draco’s smug smirk, “What is it?”

“Mm, I’m not telling you.”

“That’s not fair”, complained Harry, “What if I need to prepare myself for it!”

Draco rolled his eyes, “Its not like that.”

“What if I have to prepare myself for some deadly ambush?”, wondered Harry and then gasped, “Are the Dementors going to be back?”

“Merlin, I hope not”, groaned Draco.

“Are they gonna put any other poor mistreated creatures in dire need of liberation at the school?”

Draco groaned louder and buried his head in his hands. He never answered Harry’s questions, so Harry made sure to write to Nick again, this time including a hefty sum of Muggle money in the envelope.

By the time he was boarding the Hogwarts Express he was sporting ten new knives strapped on his person under his clothes.

‘Nobody will get me like this’, thought Harry cheerfully.

‘This is a terrible idea, mark my words.’

* * *

Severus Snape was for the first time in years feeling vaguely optimistic. Today he was finally going to release Harry from his classes. Severus was pleased to report that Harry was performing in his classes adequately and no longer looked like he was sometimes about to break into wandless magic at random moments. He’d learned how to act like a normal person and Severus was ready to let him free into the world.

It was the hour they usually held their ‘detentions’ and Severus was only waiting now for Harry to give him the excellent news. He even had a pot of Darjeeling on the stove, ready for their celebration.

Harry knocked and entered the office when Severus called him in.

The boy looked a little skittish, but Severus was sure it was nothing serious.

“Harry, for this year I’m-“

“Professor, how does one know if one likes boys?”, Harry blurted out.

Severus blinked at him. What? What was this?

It occurred to him that Harry was of that age now that he would start to notice such things.

Still, this didn’t mean he had to change his plans. This was still very normal, no need to worry.

“What makes you think you may like boys?”, he inquired. Just a simple talk to assure him that it was perfectly normal to like boys. Nothing more, that was all Harry needed.

“Well, you remember the broom from last year? See it was a gift for me from Sirius all along, but then I passed it off as a gift for Draco-“

“Wait, wait”, Severus held up his hand, “You gave Draco a broom that was given to you by _a known mass murderer_?!”

Harry looked at his feet, “Um.”

Severus gave a sigh of resignation, “You know what? Detention. Let us have a cup of tea as you start from the beginning.”

This is why Severus never allowed himself to be optimistic.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, a few hours later than I would have liked, but I still managed to update today! :D  
> Today we all get to see Harry scheme his way out of the Tournament

Harry was enjoying this year’s Halloween feast. For the first time since he got to the school there was no mass murderer, innocent or otherwise, Trolls or Basilisks skulking around that could ruin the day for him.

The Goblet of Fire spat out the last name and Harry cheered along with everybody as Cedric Diggory was called forward.

“Well, the Hogwarts Champion may not be from Slytherin, but he’s not bad”, opined Harry.

Draco was about to answer him – probably with something derogatory to say about Diggory – when the Goblet spat out two names consecutively.

Silence overtook the hall as Dumbledore read the names, looked up at everybody’s expectative gazes and then looked back down at the slips of parchment.

“HARRY AND JAMES POTTER!”, he shouted.

‘Wait, what?’

* * *

Harry silently slid in by Jimmy’s side on the table he and other Gryffindors were sharing on a mad quest to prevent Jimmy from dying on the first minute of the Tournament.

“Hey, I’ll help you break your legs so you can get out of the competition”, offered Harry in a whisper.

“Harry!”, admonished Hermione, who apparently had overheard them.

“What’s he saying?”, asked Ron, who was idly paging a book on shields.

“He’s offering Jimmy to break his legs!”

Everybody turned to look at Harry in horror.

“Only so he can quit the competition! I’m doing this to help save his life! All our enemies are conspiring to murder us here!”

Several of them rolled their eyes.

“Look, just because we think Jimmy needs help to survive this doesn’t mean we’re going to buy your crackpot conspiracies – sorry Jimmy.”

Jimmy gave a light twitch that could be interpreted as a shrug.

“People are out to murder us and when we’re both six feet under you’re gonna feel sorry for not listening to me”, said Harry as he pointed an accusatory finger at them.

“Harry! Jimmy doesn’t need the added stress of listening to your crazy nonsense!”, chastised a harried Dean, who was leading most of the efforts to keep Jimmy alive during the competition.

“Besides, we don’t need Slytherin spies on the table either”, added Seamus as he gave Harry the stink eye.

“Fine!”, huffed Harry and stood up, “But if you ever change your mind know that if you trip just right on one of the moving staircases, we can fake both your legs breaking at once.”

“Harry!”

“Fine, fine, I’m leaving”, said Harry and left them to their desperate research.

Harry went back to the Slytherin common room where his friends were. While most of his friends at believed that he didn’t put in his name in the Goblet of Fire – if only cause they all knew he would never put in Jimmy’s as well – they weren’t doing any effort to help in the upcoming Tournament. On one side Harry felt a little complimented that they all thought so highly of his power that they didn’t worry about him, but on the other side he felt a little jealous over all the effort everybody was putting in to help Jimmy, even if he knew Jimmy desperately needed it.

Falling down on the armchair besides Draco’s he glanced at his friend, “Draco, you do believe me when I say this was all orchestrated by my enemies to murder me, right?”

Draco made a scoffing sound, “Harry, not everything is a conspiracy in this life”, and for good measure he rolled his eyes. Harry felt as if somebody had stabbed him. This was completely different from when everybody else had told him he was crazy.

He got up, went to his four poster bed and closed the curtains so the world wouldn’t see his misery.

‘For the love of Merlin snap out of it! How many years do I still have to endure of this torture?!’

‘Maybe I should just fake my death’, thought Harry forlornly, ‘That’ll show Draco.’

Voldemort groaned, ‘That is overkill, please for the love of all that is sacred and pure – Do. Not. Do. Anything. Stupid.’

‘But he better learn not to be such an ass’, mumbled Harry unhappily.

Voldemort gave an even louder groan.

About a week later Harry had more or less made up a plan, even if Voldemort deeply disagreed with it.

“Hey, I’m going to do some plotting for when I’m overlord while I watch Norberta screech at the edge of the Forest”, Harry informed his friends at the common room.

“Hmm, have fun”, said Blaise absentmindedly as he read a book. The others barely even looked at Harry, all of them engrossed in their own things.

With a huff Harry left for the Exceedingly Forbidden Forest. When he got at the edge he looked around and made sure that nobody was near enough to thwart his plan.

‘This is a terrible plan.’

“Come out boy”, whispered Harry and watched as Spot slowly came out, “There’s a good boy. Now, you know what to do.”

Spot growled lightly and immediately started to groan loudly and destroy a few trees at the edge and then went straight for Harry’s ankle which he grabbed and used to drag a by now screaming Harry into the Forest.

Harry kept screaming in fake terror until he was far enough into the forest that he felt confident that he was no longer visible by anybody outside of it. Next he let himself float up to the trees and entered the forest a little deeper, all while making sure he was scratching himself up to make it all believable.

Finally, Harry stopped at a tree that looked fairly tall to him and looked down from the branch he was perched on.

“Hey Vol, know any failsafe methods so that my leg will definitely break?”

‘This is by far the worst plan you’ve ever had in your whole life! Are you out of your mind?!’

“I’ll take that as a no then”, said Harry and looked at his legs, still unsure as to which one he wanted broken.

‘The second I get out of here I am grounding you for the rest of your life!’

“Sure”, said Harry, even feeling a bit touched, “Here goes nothing!”, he shouted and stepped off the branch with his left leg.

Harry wakes up what feels like hours later and can barely breath through the pain in his whole body.

‘Harry?! Harry can you hear me?! Oh Merlin, this is bad! I told you this was a terrible idea! Just don’t faint again, you have a terrible concussion- wait! Harry!’

The world was black again and Harry was drowning in it.

“Foun’ ‘im!”, is the shout that woke Harry up. The world was shrouded in darkness, but there was one yellow blob floating on top of him.

Soon there are other voices and when a couple hands start touching Harry he fell into darkness again.

He woke up again, this time lying on something soft, but still in a world of pain. He groaned and tried to breath, but barely seemed to be able to.

“Here Mr. Potter, drink”, said some voice and Harry obeyed and drank what was given to him.

When Harry woke up the next time his brain felt less foggy and there was no darkness at the edges threatening to swallow him.

“Oh! Mr. Potter, you’re finally awake!”, said Madame Pomfrey. Harry put in some effort to turn his head to look at her through the blur of his terrible eyesight.

“You’ve been unconscious for days, we were about to transport you to St. Mungo’s if you didn’t wake up soon. Here, let me help you with your glasses”, she said as she put his glasses on for him.

“What happened?”, he asked through his raspy throat.

“Here, drink this”, Madame Pomfrey held him a glass full of water with a straw that Harry greedily sucked on.

“That is exactly what we’d like to know Mr. Potter”, said Madame Pomfrey, “There are several Aurors that want to talk with you. Also your Head of House. And your friends.”

Harry winced, “Is it really necessary? I feel awful.”

“Well, I imagine you would. You broke both your legs, your left arm, several ribs, your clavicle and your hip. You also lost a considerable amount of blood, which has prevented me from healing you as quickly as I would like. In fact, you’ll probably be quite incapacitated for months still to come.”

Harry gaped at her.

‘Still think this is such a great idea?’, huffed Voldemort, ‘Just wait until I get out of here and can get my hands on you! You’ll be grounded till the day you’re over a hundred!’

Once news was out that Harry had awoken several Aurors came to question him while a livid looking Professor Snape watched on. Harry just knew he would skin Harry alive if he wasn’t already injured.

During the questioning from the Aurors Harry kept saying that he didn’t remember what had happened and only remembered being dragged off by something and then feeling intense pain.

“I see Mr. Potter”, said the lead Auror after about half an hour of questioning, “I guess that’s all we have to ask you about this case. One last thing though. Auror Shacklebolt asked us if you could perhaps identify the woman on this picture as Lily Potter.”

Harry peered at the picture of the red headed woman, “I don’t see any martini glass, so it can’t be her.”

The Auror nodded, “I see, thank you for your cooperation Mr. Potter.”

After the Aurors left along with Professor Snape all of Harry’s friends rushed into the infirmary to visit him.

“Harry, I’m so sorry we should have believed you”, was he first thing Draco said and Harry almost felt his heart explode.

‘Oh my gosh, Vol, did you hear that?!’, he gushed to Voldemort.

‘Unfortunately.’

‘This makes it all almost worth it’, Harry thought and then saw Draco looking at him with concern and his heart melted another little bit, ‘Forget almost, this is totally worth it.’

‘Merlin save us all from teenage crushes’, groused Voldemort.

Spot whined in agreement.

“Don’t worry Draco, none of this is your fault”, said Harry, smiling at him to comfort him.

“You don’t think whatever happened to you will happen to Jimmy too, right?”, worried Seamus.

Dean swatted him, “Dude! Think positive! Besides, Jimmy doesn’t go to the Exceedingly Forbidden Forest for no reason like Harry.”

“Harry would you be willing to give the Quibbler the exclusive about your attack by an Umgubular Slashkilter?”, asked Luna, “And the Ministry conspiracy to keep them a secret from Wizarding society?”

Draco made a face, “Leave him alone Lovegood, can’t you see he’s in no shape to be partaking in your nonsense?”

“I’ll be delighted to do so later though”, Harry told Luna, much to Draco’s dissatisfaction.

After everybody was chased out by Madame Pomfrey Professor Snape was back and this time he was ready to ream Harry a new one.

Professor Snape didn’t buy Harry’s act of being attacked by some creature even for one second.

“-worst of all, you could have died!”, shouted Professor Snape.

Harry winced, “I really just wanted to break my leg – and prove Draco wrong.”

Professor Snape rolled his eyes, “Why in Merlin’s name would you risk your life for something so stupid!?”

Harry fiddled with his blanket and refused to meet his eyes.

Professor Snape sighed deeply and collapsed on the chair at Harry’s bedside, “When you told me you thought you like boys, you were referring to Draco in specific, weren’t you?”

Harry would have shrugged if he could’ve, so instead he stayed quiet.

“Merlin”, Professor Snape whispered, “We’re going to have a long talk about how a healthy relationship works.”

“Yes, Sir”, said Harry as Professor Snape got up again.

“Oh, you should be pleased to hear that due to the extent of your injuries you’ve disqualified from the Tournament – BUT! If you believe for even one second that this is the world rewarding you for your blatant disregard of your own life you are sorely mistaken! We’ll be discussing this during detention for the rest of the school year.”

“Yes, Sir”, said Harry through his bright grin. Professor Snape gave a huff of exasperation and then stalked off.

‘We did it!’, crowed Harry.

‘Wonderful, you only almost killed yourself’, snarked Voldemort.

* * *

“Coming through! Coming through!”, Harry shouted as he wheeled himself around the castle in his new wheelchair.

“Harry, wait! Not so fast!”, shouted Blaise as he and several of Harry’s Slytherin friends ran after him.

“Carpe Diem, Blaise! Seize the day!”, called Harry as he put in even more effort to wheel himself faster.

“Stop already you lunatic!”, shouted Theo.

Unfortunately Harry couldn’t continue as far as he wished with his racing since he had to stop when he came upon another flight of stairs.

“Draco! Quick, fetch me some parchment, quill and ink so I can denounce this place for not being accessible for disabled people!”, said Harry when his Slytherin friends finally reached him.

“Yeah, yeah, once we’re in class”, promised Draco as he and Blaise concentrated on levitating Harry down the flight of stairs.

“Splendid”, grinned Harry as he was slowly lowered down the stairs.

Later that day, after Harry had been wheeled to the library he went to join Jimmy, who was sitting alone at one of the tables while all his friends scoured the shelves for books to help him.

“Hey Jimmy, how goes?”, asked Harry cheerfully.

Jimmy’s shoulder twitched somewhat, so Harry took it as a greeting.

“Hey, I was thinking, since I got suspended from the Tournament you could use these”, said Harry as he handed Jimmy a couple of the knives he’d ordered from Nick.

Jimmy looked down at what Harry was offering him, blinked and suddenly seemed to come out of his stupor, “Harry what in Merlin’s name-?”

“I know, I know, they don’t look like much, but trust me, I sharpened them all. Here, put one in you pocket for now, the rest can go other places”, said Harry as he forced a knife in Jimmy’s robes’ pocket.

“Harry, _no._ ”

Unfortunately it seemed that Harry’s attempt at cheering Jimmy up didn’t help as much as he wished it would. Harry tried not to take it too much at heart, after all, Jimmy was viable to cut himself up by accident.

“I wished I knew how I could help him”, said Harry wistfully as he sat at the Slytherin common room.

“Dude, no offense or anything, but the only thing that could help you brother come out of this unscathed is a miracle”, said Theo.

Harry scowled at him, even if he secretly agreed with him.

When the Wand Weighing Ceremony was held Harry went along to try serve as support for Jimmy.

Regrettably, with the press present it was almost impossible to make Jimmy do anything aside from stand in front of the wall and gaze straight at it.

“Come on Jimmy, just look at us for a few seconds then all of this will be over”, coaxed Dean as he and Seamus stood by the photographer’s side. Harry was sitting in his wheelchair – which he technically barely still needed since his magic was healing him up much faster than expected – by their side and watching it all unfold. Rita Skeeter had at first looked ready to pounce on Harry’s poor brother, but then she’d had a proper look at him and decided to focus instead on Diggory.

Harry was kinda glad she did, because if she could make Diggory sweat like that Harry wasn’t sure if Jimmy would be at all responsive by the time she finished with him.

“Look, look! He’s moving! That’s it Jimmy, you can do it!”, said Dean when Jimmy started to inch away from the wall and look like he might gaze in the general direction of the camera.

“Quick! Everybody pose!”, shouted the photographer and everybody rushed to pose around Jimmy when he finally looked at Dean. He had a pained expression on his face, but considering they’d waited almost half an hour for him to stop staring at the wall it was considered a success.

Afterwards, when the news article came out in the Daily Prophet all everybody could talk about was the sordid details of Cedric’s tragic life that Skeeter had written about.

“None of it is true!”, Harry heard him say during dinner a few days later.

“That poor man, he’s still trying to hide the suffering he feels inside his soul”, said Pansy as she dabbed her eyes with a serviette.

“All we can give him is our compassion and understanding in the meantime”, said Millicent sadly.

On the day of the First Task Harry was first beyond incensed that they would use dragons and secondly horrified that Jimmy would have to survive the fight against one.

“This is so terrible on so many levels I can’t stand looking at it anymore”, said Harry as he watched Diggory, the first contender, run away from dragon fire.

“You serious or are you just being dramatic?”, asked Draco.

“I’m serious, but I can wait till Diggory is finished before you liberate me from this suffering”, allowed Harry.

“Oh, so you’re being serious and dramatic, good to know”, said Draco with a nod as he kept watching Diggory run for his life.

Harry sulked until he was levitated down the stands and left to wait out the competition in the shade of a nearby tree.

Once alone Harry quickly got up and placed an illusion charm so it looked like he still was on his chair while he made himself invisible. A few minutes later Harry had figured out where the dragons were being held and decided to wait until the last competitor was facing their dragon to strike. Moving as swiftly and as silently as possible Harry broke the chains of all the dragons and one by started to usher them to fly away.

Once the second one had taken to the skies the third one jumped on the opportunity and followed them. This created just enough distraction for Harry to run back to his chair, cancel all charms and observe in delight as the fourth and last dragon took flight from within the stadium, breaking its chains to follow its brethren.

It truly was beautiful.

‘Nobody is going to believe that you had nothing to do with this though’, said Voldemort.

‘Eh, what’s even more detention compared to the freedom of these majestic animals?’

Afterwards Harry found out that Jimmy had been the last contender and that the dragon had knocked him over when it took flight. As luck would have it, Jimmy was only bruised by this. On the other hand, he got zero points since he was only able to get the egg after the dragon flew away.

The dragon tamers were also complaining about the lack of security provided by the Ministry for the event and was blaming the whole thing on them.

Incidentally, the dragons were all now living happily in the Exceedingly Forbidden Forest. Or at least Harry assumed that all the never-ending screeches coming from the Forest ever since signified that they were happy.

Also, all of Harry’s friends were giving him sidelong glances and Professor Snape had told him he no longer knew what to do with him, so Harry decided it was a success, all in all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I little bit of whump there, hopefully you all liked the chapter ;)


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The Second Task is here! It'll be completely different from what happens in the book since the lake is currently the home of a Basilisk :)

After coming to the realization that putting on his best face of ‘I’m innocent’ while in a wheelchair was no longer having the same effect as before, Harry decided to change tactics and upgraded to putting on his best face of ‘I’m very innocent’ while using crutches while simultaneously also channelling his inner Timmy from a Christmas Carol.

When Harry first limped into the Slytherin common room and saw his friends looking at him in pity he knew he’d succeeded.

“Oh man, you’re not going to be able to go to the Ball like that”, said Blaise in sympathy.

“What? What Ball?”, asked Harry.

Harry was devastated to learn that there was going to be a Ball for all students of fourth year and upwards. Everybody was talking about it once it was announced. All the time.

“Dude, you gotta help us out. Jimmy really needs to have a partner to go with to the Ball”, Seamus told Harry as they sat at the library and tried to think of how to open the egg, which was stubbornly staying shut so far.

“Life is cruel Seamus, sometimes there’s nothing we can do to it”, said Harry forlornly.

“Mate I’m serious, he’s already last in the competition, he doesn’t need more trouble. There are people feeling embarrassed by him in our House, Harry. Sure, he’s a, um, little, you know, um, different, but he doesn’t deserve that.”

Harry turned to look at Seamus, “What is the meaning of life anyways Seamus?”

“Dude, have you been listening to me at all?”, asked an irritated Seamus.

“Leave him man, there’s no solving whatever is bugging him now”, said Dean as he was measuring the egg with a measuring tape.

“Did you see another poor creature you wanted to liberate? Is that it?”, asked Seamus.

Harry sighed, “If only. My fight for the freedom of all magical creatures is the only thing that matters now, everything else in life is insignificant.”

“Dude, what the hell?”, asked Ron, finally looking up from where he was napping on one of the many books littering the table.

“Harry, do you need me to get Professor Snape?”, asked Hermione, setting down for the first time her book.

Harry blinked at her, “How are you here? You’re supposed to be in the extra lecture for Arithmancy. You specifically asked for it.”

Hermione scoffed, “And shouldn’t you be there too? You said you’d be there.”

“Hermione, I literally just said that nothing in this life matters anymore, do pay attention”, Harry shook his head at her.

‘You’re taking this too far’, said Voldemort, who despite never needing to sleep was sounding deeply exhausted.

‘He asked out Pansy’, Harry whined.

‘For crying out loud! Get over it!’

‘No, my heart is broken’, Harry sighed heavily.

‘Merlin please set me free, I promise I’ll be good’, pleaded Voldemort.

Hermione set down her book and walked over to Harry, “Come on, I’m taking you to Professor Snape”, she said as she tugged on his arm to get him up.

Harry sat in Snape’s office whining and lamenting himself until the evening when he got kicked out and told to go bother somebody else.

“Luna my life is over”, he told his friend when he found her on the school grounds trying to find a weakness on the wall surrounding the lake so she could scale it.

“Hi Harry”, said Luna in answer, still prodding at the wall.

“Luna, I said my life is over”, Harry repeated himself.

“Oh, were you not being dramatic?”, asked Luna as she finally looked at him.

“Well, I mean, yes, but still! You can’t just ignore things like that”, Harry whined.

Luna just blinked at him, “Okay. Why is your life over?”

Harry sighed in an overly dramatic way, “Life has no meaning anymore! And it’s all this stupid Ball’s fault!”

Luna hummed, “Can’t you find a partner to go with?”

“That’s not the problem! That’s Jimmy’s problem anyways”, Harry huffed, “It’s just that I can’t go with who I want to cause they already got somebody else!”

Luna nodded, “I see. Hopefully Jimmy will find somebody.”

Harry pouted at her and her tranquil disposition. Then a thought hit him.

“Hey, don’t you wanna go with Jimmy?”

A few minutes later Harry came limping into the library with Luna on his tail.

“Hey Jimmy! Look, I got you a partner to go with to the Ball”, Harry told his brother and motioned at Luna.

“There are many Nargles here”, said Luna and started to bat at the air.

“Sweet Merlin”, said Ron as Seamus let his head hit the table with a loud thunk.

“Could have been worse – no offense Luna”, said Dean.

“Its fine”, said Luna, still batting at the air.

Jimmy leaned over to Harry’s side, “Should I, like, learn all the creatures she talks about? Is that what people do when they go on a date?”

“Hmm, you can ask her about it if you want. She loves to tell people about them”, said Harry after he thought about it. Jimmy nodded, not looking too confident about the whole issue.

* * *

This was pure torture. Harry had no idea what had possessed him to go to the Ball all alone to sit and watch other people dance with their partners. To sit and watch _Draco_ dance with freaking Pansy. The only consolation Harry felt at that moment was the knowledge that Pansy was going to get a letter laced with itching powder the next morning.

At least Jimmy and Luna looked like they were enjoying themselves. Well, enjoy might be strong word, but at least Jimmy hadn’t tried to melt in with the furniture. Yet.

Harry took his eyes off his brother’s awkward dancing and his eyes found themselves automatically going back to Draco and Pansy. It hurt like a stab wound.

Finally no longer being able to handle it Harry went outside to mope alone. Seamus and Dean could always handle Jimmy if he tried to face the wall again for the rest of the night.

Harry had been sitting in the cold outside for a while when he was surprised by Draco strolling by.

“Ditching your date?”, called Harry and Draco turned to see Harry.

“She ditched me first”, said Draco and went to sit by Harry’s side, “Stupid Theo asked her for a dance and then never came back.”

“Hmm”, Harry hummed and secretly felt pleased with the turn of events.

“What are you doing out here, freezing your arse off?”, asked Draco, rubbing his hands to get some warmth back into them.

“Could ask the same for you”, said Harry, even though the truth was he’d long since stopped feeling his ass.

“I don’t like the Weird Sisters”, said Draco, making a face as their music was still loud enough to be heard where they were sitting.

They sat in silence for a while as the music still blasted from within the Great Hall.

“Do you like Pansy?”, Harry suddenly blurted and immediately bit his tongue for letting that slip out.

Draco shrugged, “You mean as in like, like? Eh, not really.”

Harry’s heart was about to burst out of his chest, he was sure of it.

“Didn’t you like Lovegood? Why’d you offer her up to Jimmy?”, Draco asked.

Harry laughed, “Luna? Me? Come on!”

“You’re with her often enough”, the face Draco was making said enough about what he thought about that.

Harry laughed harder.

“Merlin, you really don’t like her like that”, said Draco and then shivered, “Fuck its cold.”

“Help me up and we can go to the common room fireplace”, said Harry and got his crutches ready.

They’d barely started on their way when it started to snow softly.

Harry suddenly noticed that the music coming from the Great Hall had also changed.

“Hey”, he bumped his shoulder with Draco’s and grinned at him, “Wanna honour me with this dance?”

Harry was giggling madly at Draco’s rolled eyes when he saw Draco was swaying slightly to the tune of the music.

Slowly and with some impediment from his crutches Harry started to sway along with Draco.

It was perfect.

Even if Voldemort was making gagging noises in his head.

* * *

The date for the Second Task in the Tournament had finally arrived. Jimmy had been able to figure out crucial clues to it when while the Weasley twins were playing catch with the egg it suddenly opened and revealed a certain sequence of places that they needed to prepare for. The start was the Astronomy Tower, then Ravenclaw Tower, then Gryffindor Tower, then over the Great Hall roof and finally back to the Astronomy Tower.

Figuring out that the Task had something to do with flight they’d all started to concentrate on giving Jimmy lessons in broom flying. When that failed they switched to finding protective charms Jimmy could apply on himself for the Task so that he didn’t kill himself.

Unfortunately most of them were NEWT level charms, so they had a limited amount of time to make sure Jimmy mastered them.

They also taught him the best ways to fall and avoid breaking all the bones in your body.

“This is so rigged”, complained Ron the day of the Second Task as they all trudged towards the stands that had been put up around the castle, “Krum is obviously going to win, there’s no way he won’t wipe the floor with everybody else. Diggory might come in second if the French girl isn’t as good as him in Quidditch, but after reading that story about his childhood trauma in the Prophet I’m no longer so sure.”

Harry nodded as he climbed the stairs with ease, having finally given up using crutches for about a month now, “I read it too, it’s a wonder a person can go through so much suffering and still be as upbeat as him.”

“He’s an example for all of us”, said Blaise with a nod.

Once they were all seated they watched as the contenders gathered at the base of the Astronomy Tower. Then they saw Hagrid bring forth four Hippogriffs.

“Oh no”, whispered Dean.

“For the Second Task our Champions will have to race each other on a race of Hippogriffs. On each of the marked Towers there is an item that they will have to pick up that together will form a puzzle to be solved as a clue for the last and Third Task. Only those who solve the puzzle of the eggs of the previous Task will know the order of the Towers to which they need to go”, announced Dumbledore through a Sonorus.

“He’s so screwed”, said Seamus.

“I don’t want to look”, said Dean and hid his face in his hands.

“Good luck to everybody!”, shouted Dumbledore and let off a loud bang from his wand.

Jimmy immediately started to apply all the charms they’d taught him on himself while the other contenders began to warily approach their Hippogriffs.

“Jimmy isn’t in our class of Care of Magical Creatures, is he?”, asked Draco.

“Nope”, confirmed Theo as he leaned forward, looking more than ready to see Harry’s poor brother go splat.

Fortunately Jimmy seemed to copy what the others were doing and his Hippogriff quickly bowed back at him.

Meanwhile, the other contenders weren’t doing too great. Krum’s Hippogriff was buckling a lot in the air and Delacour’s seemed to hate her. In fact, Delacour had barely managed to lift off when she was thrown off by her Hippogriff.

Several people had been fast enough and were able to soften the soil where she fell.

At the same time Jimmy was now mounted on his Hippogriff and gaining height.

“Oh Merlin I can’t believe this! He’s going higher than Delacour did!”, exclaimed Seamus.

“GO JIMMY!”, shouted Ron and several Gryffindors looked even half hopeful for a second.

Then Krum’s Hippogriff flew into a wall and while Krum managed to recover the impact startled Jimmy’s Hippogriff who completely veered off course.

Everybody watched in horror as Jimmy was flown far out of the race range and towards the Exceedingly Forbidden Forest. Just before they could enter the Forest the Hippogriff gave one last wild buck and threw Jimmy off who went crushing right into Hagrid’s hut.

Silence overtook the crowd as they all gaped at the hut.

“Is he dead?”, asked Dean, still refusing to look.

“Uh, maybe a little bit”, said Theo, who was standing on his seat to have a better look.

* * *

“Here”, Harry offered Jimmy another sip from the pumpkin juice they’d smuggled into the infirmary that day.

“’anks”, said Jimmy, his voice still off from the broken nose. Fortunately the charms he’d applied on himself where enough to keep him from breaking his cranium and spine, but hadn’t been able to do much else.

Jimmy resembled a mummy from the amount of bandages he was covered in.

“You shoulda just gone along with my plan to break your legs”, said Harry only to get swatted by Hermione.

“What is important is that you barely lost any blood, so your recovery will be much quicker than Harry’s”, said Dean, trying to be the optimist.

“The castle still isn’t accessible for wheelchairs though”, groused Harry.

“I told you writing the Board three letters a day was a bad idea”, said Draco. He, among the rest of Harry’s Slytherin friends, had taken to hang out in the infirmary along with Harry to try cheer Jimmy up.

“Oh!”, Harry suddenly sat up straighter, “Talking about letters, Sirius sent us one, I’ll go grab it.”

“Bring more pumpkin juice!”, called Seamus as Harry hastily left the infirmary.

Harry was almost halfway down the castle when Professor Moody intercepted him. Professor Moody had replaced Remus after he quit the job to try help James Potter out of his funk when all the lies Lily had been telling him came out. Yet after almost having a full year of classes with Professor Moody Harry didn’t have much of an opinion on him, except that if he kept casting the Imperius on Harry Spot was liable to make an appearance and give him a piece of his mind.

“Potter, minute if you please?”, asked Professor Moody.

“Uh, sure, what can I help you with Sir?”

“There’s something I want to show you, if you could walk with me for a bit?”, Professor Moody motioned for Harry to follow him.

“Okay”, said Harry and followed him.

By the time they reached the school grounds Harry was starting to get suspicious.

“Professor, where are we going?”, asked Harry.

“Just close by”, said Moody.

“I don’t think I want to go anymore”, said Harry and planted his feet firmly.

Moody pulled out his wand and pointed it at Harry, “You’re coming with me whether you want it or not!”

‘Wait, this was a kidnapping all along?!’

“No wait! I don’t want to be kidnapped, Professor Snape will get angry and give me detention again!”

“Move it Potter!”

“I just finished my last detention! I’m not going back to scrubbing cauldrons!”, shouted Harry as Moody started to manhandle him.

“HELP! HELP!”, screamed Harry as he was slowly being dragged away by Moody.

“Oi! Wha’ yeh doin’?!”, shouted Hagrid as came running over.

Moody immediately started to send curses of all colours and sorts at Hagrid, who was forced to run away, but at least he was running towards the castle, noted Harry.

Moody was now putting all his strength into dragging Harry with him, even as Harry started to thrash harder.

‘Use your powers dammit! Who knows what a creep like him wants!’

“HELP!”, shouted Harry as he elbowed Moody in the gut with little to no effect.

‘USE YOUR POWERS DAMMIT! SPOT! Spot, get ready boy!’

‘No, not Spot they’ll lock him up! I never vaccinated him!’

‘HE’S AN OBSCURUS!’

‘Shit, do you think Obscuruses need any sort of care? What if Spot has been getting deathly ill and I never noticed?’

‘HARRY YOU’RE BEING KIDNAPPED BY A CREEP WITH ONE EYE!’

‘That’s ableist!’

Before either one could expand on their argument there was a bright flash and Dumbledore suddenly stood in front of them.

“Alastor! Let go of him right this instant!”, shouted Dumbledore as he pointed his wand at Moody.

‘Alastor? Who the hell is Alastor?’

Several more teachers were now running towards them and Moody seemed to be willing to try cursing them all.

Taking this as an opportunity Harry trashed even harder, but Moody paused his cursing to get a stronger grip on Harry. Suddenly, Harry felt one of the little harnesses for his knife get loose and the next thing he knew was that Moody was holding up a knife to look at it.

“I guess this’ll do”, he said and then Harry felt the air leave him when the knife was plunged in his side.

Distantly Harry was aware of people screaming as he fell down, Moody having finally let him go.

The next thing he knew was that Spot was free and he was _angry_.

Moody had barely gotten two steps away before Spot got him and started to try mauling him.

‘No Spot, no! You might get rabies! Spit him out!’, shouted Harry, even as he felt ready to faint.

Spot spat out Moody and then retreated back.

Harry gave a sigh of relieve as he felt everything go back to normal – except for the stab wound – and then fainted.

* * *

When Harry awoke the next day in the infirmary he was surrounded by various faculty members and several Aurors.

“Mr. Potter, how are you feeling?”, asked Madame Pomfrey.

Harry groaned.

“He seems well enough to answer a couple questions”, said one of the Aurors and quickly elbowed their way through the crowd to sit at Harry’s bedside.

“Tell me Mr. Potter, since when have you been an Obscurial?”

‘Feign ignorance! Feign ignorance!’

“A what?”, Harry asked and winced at how raspy his voice was.

“Really, must you be so hasty that the boy can’t even have a glass of water?”, huffed Madame Pomfrey and gave Harry a glass of water.

“An Obscurial is a person that is host to an Obscurus”, explained the Auror.

“Obscurus? Oh, you mean Spot!”

The Auror seemed to falter, “Spot?”

“That’s what I called him”, said Harry happily, “Say, do you know if he’ll be fine after chewing on Moody? I was afraid that he might get some disease from that. Does anybody know if Moody had all his shots?”

From within the crowd of people in the infirmary Harry saw Professor Snape facepalming.

The Auror stared at Harry.

“Now, now, Severus”, said Professor McGonagall as she tried to console Professor Snape.

“Here Severus, have a lemon drop”, Dumbledore offered a little paper bag to Professor Snape.

Professor Snape lowered his hand to glare at Dumbledore and swat his paper bag out of his hand.

“Severus”, said Dumbledore in a sad reproachful voice as he looked forlornly at the candy now littering the floor.

The Auror interviewing Harry cleared his throat, “Since when have you had, um, uh, Spot, Mr. Potter?”

“Since I was four years old”, said Harry, “That’s why the Dursleys abandoned me.”

There was an uncomfortable silence as nobody seemed to know what to say to that.

“Well, uh, Mr. Potter, uh, in the light of the fact that you grew up without knowing what you were I think we can let you go with a warning this time, but I’m afraid that you’ll need to get yourself registered at the Ministry as soon as possible or else we’ll be forced to arrest you”, said the Auror after a few moments.

Harry nodded, “That seems fair, but I still need to go to classes and I have no official guardian at the moment.”

“Oh, I’m sure Severus won’t mind”, said Dumbledore amiably.

Professor Snape gave a stiff nod.

“Well then, that would make my job here concluded – oh!”, the Auror got out a photo from his pocket, “Could you please tell us if this woman here is Lily Potter?”

Harry peered at the picture, “Hmm, there’s no martini glass”, Harry shook his head, “Can’t be her then.”

The Auror nodded, “Thanks anyways”, he said and then left.

Harry turned to Professor Snape, “Sir, what happened after I fainted? Also, I was serious when I asked if there would be any problems with Spot for chewing on Moody – er, Professor Moody”, Harry rectified when he saw Dumbledore was still there.

“While I’m not sure about your friend Spot, it turns out he wasn’t Alastor Moody at all, but somebody under the Polyjuice effect to look like him. We found the real Alastor Moody in one of the trunks in his office. He was actually a man called Barty Crouch Jr.” answered Dumbledore.

‘What? Barty?! I can’t believe it!’, gasped Voldemort.

“Who’s that, Sir?”, asked Harry, feeling rather lost.

“One of Lord Voldemort’s followers I’m afraid, we’d all thought him long dead”, explained Dumbledore.

“Oh”, said Harry, not really knowing what else to say.

“I’ll leave you two to it then”, said Dumbledore and left with the few teachers that were still left, leaving Harry alone in his curtained off area with Professor Snape.

“Why didn’t you ever tell me?”, asked Professor Snape, looking exhausted with everything.

“Um, I was afraid”, confessed Harry, “I immediately realized I was different from everybody else and I also immediately knew that telling people about Spot might be a bad idea, what if somebody hurt him! And then you, Sir, I, I felt I could tell you most of what was happening, but I also knew Spot might just be a bit too much.”

Professor Snape sighed, “Perhaps, perhaps not. Regardless, I’ll look into finding somebody that might give more insight into this.”

“Yes, please! I just realized recently that I never got Spot any vaccines! What if he’s sick or something! Especially after chewing on Not-Moody!”

Professor Snape gave him an exaggerated look, “We’ll continue this talk on a later date, for now try to rest. We’ll be keeping your friends out till tomorrow morning.”

After Professor Snape left Jimmy was pushed to Harry’s bed in a wheelchair by Madame Pomfrey.

“Harry! Are you alright?! I’m so sorry you’ve had to go through this all alone for these many years!”, wailed Jimmy and tried to hug Harry, but with his arms both in casts he wasn’t able to do much else besides moving them.

“Hey, hey, Jimmy, I’m fine!”, Harry tried to reassure his twin.

“Oh, Harry! I can barely imagine the suffering you must have gone through!”, Harry was horrified to see fat tears stream down Jimmy’s face.

“Jimmy! I’m fine, really!”, Harry patted him on the shoulder where he wasn’t covered in bandages.

Still, Jimmy continued to sob.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Shipping? Me? What shipping?


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi folks! Happy belated Holidays! And Happy New Year too! :D  
> Here's a short chapter to finish off this year :)  
> I hope to upload the first chapter of the fifth year by next Sunday, but rl will determine how much free time I have. Still, like I've said, feel free to pester me if I just disappear XD

“But why Spot?”, asked Blaise for perhaps the fifth time already.

“If I had an Obscurus I’d name him Mephistopheles”, said Draco, after thinking on the subject for a few minutes.

“See, that’s not a bad name”, said Theo, who also felt Harry’s ability in name-giving was lacking.

“Fuck off”, mumbled Harry as he sat crossed armed on his bed in the infirmary, “I was four.”

“I named my cat Andromeda when I was four”, sniffed Blaise.

Harry made a face at him.

Hermione turned a page in one of the dozens of books she’d hauled to the infirmary and mumbled to herself. She didn’t look like she’d slept recently either, there were deep bags under her eyes and her hair was standing on end, frizzier than ever.

“Is she okay?”, asked Harry, pointing at Hermione.

“We sometimes put a sandwich near her to make sure she stays alive”, said Dean, “My theory is that she’s transcended into another plane of existence, one that enables her to be at several places at once at the cost of her life force.”

“Hmm”, hummed Harry.

‘Hmm’, hummed Voldemort, ‘I think I know what she’s been doing.’

“Don’t listen to him Harry, that’s just his wacky theory to explain how Hermione has been attending all her classes so far. Mine is way better, it involves Inferi and vampires, wanna hear it?”

“Um”, said Harry.

“Well, first of all we need to accept that Hermione is no longer human-“

Just that moment several teachers burst into the infirmary.

“Everybody stay still!”, commanded Professor Snape and began waving his wand around the room.

“We need to check if you all are who you appear to be”, said Professor McGonagall and began waving her wand over Harry and his friends.

“Um, why though?”, asked Harry after it had been confirmed that he was indeed who he appeared to be.

“Crouch has escaped”, said Professor Snape grimly.

Everybody gasped.

“But how?”, asked Hermione, who had finally looked up from her book when the teachers barged in.

“Its still a mystery”, explained Professor McGonagall, “All that was found in the room he was being held in was a banana peel.”

They searched the whole castle for the whole day, yet they never found any signs of Crouch.

A little over a week later Harry was finally deemed to be healthy enough to go to the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures at the Ministry of Magic to get registered as an Obscurial.

For his registration Harry was given a bracelet with a tag inscribed in runes that depicted him as an Obscurial along with a ton of paperwork.

“Potter – Harry”, started Professor Snape, who had accompanied him, after they exited the Ministry into the streets of London, “I’d like to have a word with you.”

“Sure, Sir”, said Harry.

Professor Snape guided them to a small café where they sat in a secluded corner.

“Harry I would like to talk about where you and your brother will be staying this summer”, began Professor Snape after they got their coffee served.

Harry, still feeling a tad confused, simply nodded.

“I’d like to offer to take you both in and become your guardian”, said Professor Snape, “I should have offered it last summer already, but James Potter still had legal rights over you and your brother, so I wasn’t able to-“

“You’re being serious?”, interrupted Harry and then blushed, “Sorry, I mean, are you being serious, Sir?”

Professor Snape nodded, “Absolutely. I wouldn’t be anything less about a topic like this. But I still want to know, what do you think about it?”

Harry smiled brightly at him, “It sounds wonderful, Sir. I’m sure Jimmy would love it as well, if not immediately then with some time. He just needs to get to know you a little better.”

Professor Snape gave a faint smile, “I am glad that you approve of this. I’ll talk to your brother once we’re back at Hogwarts. Now, drink your coffee before it gets cold.”

When they finished their coffees and stood up to leave Harry snuck in a quick hug to his favourite teacher and went back to Hogwarts with a skip in his step.

* * *

By a few weeks later Professor Snape had insisted that Harry should call him Severus in private and had also talked to Jimmy about his guardianship over the twins. It all was going smoothly and Harry couldn’t be happier.

Then Sirius came to visit them.

“I’m so glad you’re both doing better”, said Sirius as they sat in Professor McGonagall’s office. Jimmy had just been allowed to leave behind his wheelchair the previous day and was now awkwardly hobbling around the castle on his crutches.

“I’ll spill the tea, I’m here to tell you I’ve officially put in the paperwork to adopt you”, said Sirius as he beamed at them.

“That’s, um, I’m very moved by that, but”, Harry bit his lip, “Um, you see-“

“What?”, asked Sirius with a frown.

“Um, Professor Snape just started the paperwork to become our guardian”, explained Harry.

“HE WHAT?!”, shouted Sirius, standing up so fast that he knocked back his chair, “OVER MY DEAD BODY!”, he shouted and ran from the office.

“What’s going to happen now?”, asked Jimmy quietly.

‘Oh, just a battle of petty schoolyard rivalries of epic proportions’, said Voldemort.

“Um. They’ll probably just talk it out. In the meantime, let’s go hide in some secluded corner of the library where nobody goes”, said Harry and helped Jimmy up so they would hurry.

Later Harry would find out that Sirius burst into a class Severus was giving to first years and physically tackled him to the ground where they wrestled and beat each other while screaming profanities. It only ended after Dumbledore intervened and ordered them both on their own ways.

Their battle didn’t end there though, instead they decided to take it to court where they had to be separated forcibly several times by guards.

“You think this’ll continue into the summer?”, Harry asked Hermione, who on top of everything else she was doing research on was now also looking into Wizarding custody records.

“Maybe”, she shrugged and plopped down on her seat at the converted Quidditch Pitch to watch the Third Task.

Harry wanted to ask her further questions but when he looked at her again she was dead asleep and snoring loudly. Looking at his other side he saw Jimmy weeping from joy from no longer having to participate in the Tournament. Deciding that Dean was doing a better job consoling Jimmy Harry opted to go sit with Draco before Pansy could try claim the free seat at his side.

The Task was quite boring to watch, only a few times did they see lights from spell works shine out of the maze, but aside from that there wasn’t much to see. Once or twice they heard somebody scream in terror, but nothing much came from that either.

At the end Cedric Diggory appeared with the cup in hand at the clearing in the field. Everybody swarmed him to congratulate him and ask him what had happened in the maze. Harry had just tagged along since Jimmy wished to congratulate Diggory as well and he was trying to be a good brother, but then he heard Diggory describing having encountered a Sphinx in the maze.

Harry immediately knew what his duty was.

Hermione was still asleep at her seat when he got to her, which helped him to sneak out the golden chain that he’d seen dangling from his pocket.

‘Ha! I was right!’, crowed Voldemort when the chain revealed to be attached to a Time-Turner.

Harry wasted no time and quickly hid beneath the stands and turned the contraption like he’d read up in his research when Voldemort figured out what Hermione was carrying around.

Harry went back a little over an hour and after he cast the Disillusionment charm he snuck successfully into the maze and right after he saw Cedric run past the Sphinx Harry went up to it.

“Hey, wanna live a life of freedom in the nature?”, Harry proposed.

The Sphinx inclined her head, “Doesn’t sound bad, what would be the prize?”

“Please don’t eat or attack me or any of the students here”, pleased Harry, “That’s all I ask for.”

“Fine, that is acceptable”, said the Sphinx and allowed Harry to cast the Disillusionment charm on her as well. Harry hurriedly led her to the Exceedingly Forbidden Forest where she immediately ran off to her freedom.

“That went well”, said Harry happily as he watched her run into the forest.

‘The security of this place is rotten’, groused Voldemort.

Harry ran back to the Quidditch Pitch and as soon as he saw himself hide underneath the stands and get invisible he ran back to the slumbering Hermione.

Just as he was gently pushing the Time-Turner back into her pocket he was startled by Hermione waking up and looking at him angrily.

“What do you think you’re doing, Harry?”, she asked with narrowed eyes.

“Um, I just wanted to have a look at it, um, it was falling out anyways! Really, you ought to be grateful that it was me and not some stranger!”

Hermione narrowed her eyes even further at him, got up and stomped away.

‘That was a close call’, Harry thought.

The next day it was announced that the Sphinx had escaped and it was being searched for. Most of Harry’s friends just shook their heads at Harry and looked resigned, but Hermione glared at him and refused to talk to Harry again for the rest of the school year.

The day before the end of year feast the court finally decided to give both Severus and Sirius joint custody of Harry and Jimmy, their reached upon agreement – which had _not_ come easy – was that the twins would spend a week at the house of one of them and then a week at the other’s house. Neither Harry nor Jimmy were looking out to the inevitable fights that would happen each time they had to change from house.

The next day it was announced that Hufflepuff had won the House Cup, all thanks to Diggory winning the Tournament.

“As a second announcement I would like to inform you all that from this date on the Exceedingly Forbidden Forest has been renamed to the Exceedingly Dangerous and Forbidden Forest given the fact that there now live four new dragons within its confines and the missing Sphinx was spotted by Professor Hagrid last week.”

Hagrid, looking a little more haggard than normal and sporting several bandaged and bruises waved happily when his name was mentioned.

“Truly, nature is a marvellous and beautiful thing, 10 points to Gryffindor!”

“ALBUS!”

Gryffindor erupted into applause as this placed them on the second place and bumped down Slytherin to third.

As was custom, Draco erupted into sobs and Harry tried to console him.

“Don’t worry Draco, we still have three years left to win at least once!”, he tried to cheer Draco up.

‘Not likely while Dumbledore is still in power’, mumbled Voldemort, who also despised Slytherin not winning.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm still without a beta and I'm too busy to do much proofreading, so there are a couple errors here and there. Please tell me if you spot any or if a sentence doesn't make too much sense. Thanks! :)


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